Sacro Monte di Orta

The hilltop between the campsite and the town of Orta is a wooded park that looks down over the lake giving lovely views in all directions. This shot of the island in the lake is a good example.

The most impressive and unusual feature of this park is the collection of 20 temples it contains, each different in shape and size, built during a period of 90 years from the mid 17th century. They are beautifully and ornately constructed, as the photo of one shows.

The temples are dedicated to the life of St Francis, and each temple depicts a different scene from his life. This is the amazing part: these scenes are shown in wall and ceiling illustrations, and also life-size painted terracotta models, literally hundreds of them in total. UNESCO recognised the park’s unique quality 7 years ago by granting it World Heritage Status. The next photo shows a scene where St Francis is meeting the King. Observe that each model is individually cast, and has lifelike expression and movement as well as a superbly detailed painted finish.

Example 2 below, from another temple, even surpasses this with full-size horses and a man climbing a pole. St Francis is just around the corner being persecuted. It’s so realistic that you want to shout and put some backbone into St Francis: “Don’t put up with it, Frankie, hit him back!” Unfortunately, some of the paint has peeled to reveal the terracotta, but that’s still not bad after 350ish years in a damp atmosphere.